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Disneyland and D23, September 2009

churros
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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby churros » Sun Oct 18, 2009 3:41 pm

Wow you really needed that hyperventilation paperbag Keith! Good thing you packed it! :lol:

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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby mushu mama » Sun Oct 18, 2009 8:41 pm

O

M

G




Seriously, I was getting goosebumps reading all the amazing stuff from Day 1... only I think Jealous-bumps might be more accurate. :wink:
The fact that Disney didn't just sprinkle pixie dust but poured it on by the truckload just blows me away.

And I NEEEEED SOME OF THOSE POOKALOO'S!

Definitely on my list for next time.

Great update Keith... nearly like being there. nearly. :cry:

Lisa. */
1999- Tokyo DL, 2008- DLR/Cal Adventure, 2012-DLR/Cal Adventure, 2013-Tokyo DLand/Sea, 2014-DLR/Cal Adventure, 2015- Paris DL, 2016 - WDW/Disneycruise , upcoming - May 2018 - HongKong DL

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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:29 am

Thanks Ladies - I can't wait to begin writing the next day's report :)

Yep - the Pook-a-Looz are pretty cool - and I'm not into fluffies generally (except for the Buzzard of course - he is beside my computer at work right now...looking at me, so I had to say that!) but these Pook-a-Looz are cool. They told us they were a worldwide release through Toys-R-Us early next year, but they were a bit evasive about an Australian release - saying that our market was "difficult". When they say a worldwide release, they really mean United States, Canada, and Europe!
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015

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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby ajp » Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:53 am

Great start to the expo run down Keith. I've enjoyed your recap so far, so keep it going.

On the Pooalooz, I'll take the opposite position. They didn't look all that exciting to me, but then it might be hard to tell in pictures. But the character faces looked like a cross between a 2nd rate Japanese cartoon and an Angela Anaconda drawing. But then that's just me ...
2023 Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Lines - Disney Wish. Going to be awesome to be back!

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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Mon Oct 19, 2009 3:56 pm

On the Pooalooz, I'll take the opposite position.
I can respect that too - when I first saw them, I didn't like them. But then they just continued to grow on me over time. You may find your opinion changing once you see them.

I think it was because they were so odd to begin with that I didn't like them - but now I've seen a lot of them, they don't seem so out of place.
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015

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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Tue Oct 20, 2009 9:53 pm

Day 13 - D23 Expo
It's morning - and day 2 of the D23 Expo. We are still recovering from the excitement of the night before, but first thing this morning, we have to go over to Gerard's hotel to drop off his Whatnot. So after a flurry of SMS's and breakfast, we headed down the road to Gerard's hotel. He met us out the front on Harbor Blvd, before showing us to his room. We dropped off the Whatnot, then headed together for the convention centre. We stopped outside the entrance and took some photos - Gerard took a photo of Della and me outside the centre, which he then emailed to Sandie on his Blackberry. We then headed inside.

Della and I headed to the Dream Store (hmmm...I think I missed writing about this in Day 1 - we did go there and buy stuff - including Alex the bunny from the Pixar short Presto - he is awesome!). This morning, we were lining up for the limited edition pins - these were issued to D23 members only on a first come, first served basis. When you got in line, every member got a ticket for the day's pin set which you had to redeem at the checkout. The checkout line was extraordinary:
Image

It took me about an hour to get through it all - this was a pattern for me over the next two days as well - arrive at Expo, get my pin dockets, line up and hand over my cash!

After that, Della went to have a look at the US Postal Service stand that was selling a fantastic book about Disney Postage Stamps - the book came with the complete set of "The Art Of..." Disney Stamps that they placed into the book, which were then cancelled with the D23 Post Mark - it is a pretty cool collectible. The problem was - it took ages to do as you had to put all 21 stamps into the book yourself - so while Della was doing that, I went and had a look into the Parks and Resorts Pavilion - I hadn't been in there yet, but Wayne had visited yesterday and told me it was so good he began to get teary! So I wandered off to take a look.

Before getting into the pavilion itself, there was a little pre-show room. You basically stood facing a big 1950's TV screen and it was showing an early B&W episode of the Disneyland TV show and how they were building a theme park - but then, right before your eyes, the B&W TV becomes this massive full colour widescreen presentation showing Disneyland today - it was awesome - and THEN, it all goes dark except for some pixie dust on the wall which begins expanding into a magic portal - which you walk through it and into the main pavilion! Brilliant - gave me goosebumps the first time! And every time I watched it (and I did it lots!) the room always went "oooohhhhh...aaahhhhhhh" when that portal opened - no one does Disney like Disney!

This pavilion was brilliant - the first thing you see is the massive Carsland models - a number of them at different scales. Then there was the 'talking' Lightning McQueen showing the amazing moving mouth technology. Other things in this pavilion included the original Abraham Lincoln, new animatronic technology, models of the Hawaiian resort, the new cruise ship models (including a bronze Donald Duck lifesize figuring that will be installed on the Disney Dream), Lucky the Dinosaur, Wall-E, demonstrations of new technology, and a large portion devoted to the Hong Kong Disneyland expansion. The best bit was being able to talk to all the Imagineers - and they didn't hold back, no question seemed off limits, it was really terrific.

But my phone began rings (nuts) - Della had finished with the stamps and it was time for us to join the queue for the Dick Cook presentation. We joined the queue and Gerard was not far behind us - we could also see Wayne and Jennifer a little in front of us. Once again, we had to hand in our electronics. There were lots of rumours flying around - someone said that Nicholas Cage was coming, and maybe Tim Burton too. Wayne had even heard a rumour that Johnny Depp was coming, but we thought that was wishful thinking.

So we filed on in and Gerard caught up with us. The first thing we noticed was that there was seating up front for an orchestra - that looked pretty cool - I wonder what they were going to play. Anyway - time dragged on as more people came in and the Arena really filled up - the place was packed, but we had great seats to see the stage. Finally, the orchestra members came out and took their places - and the lights dimmed...

On the big screens, they began playing the best Disney film montage I have ever seen! And better still - the live orchestra was playing a great melody of film themes based on what was on the big screen. For about 10 minutes this played to a rapturous audience who were cheering every movie, every character, every favourite scene from the entire Disney back catalogue - the animated classics, action films like The Rock, Sixth Sense, comedies like - Splash, Three Men and a Baby, chick flicks - Beaches, Pretty Woman, adventure - Pirates, National Treasure - the scenes kept coming and coming and the cheering got louder. I wish they would release this ten minute sequence on a DVD extra somewhere - it was brilliant and set the scene for the next 75 minutes! This alone was worth the entire trip - the atmosphere in that Arena at that point in time was unbelievable - people were crying and laughing!

END OF PART 1
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015

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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Tue Oct 20, 2009 9:54 pm

PART 2
The music stopped and Dick Cook took the stage and he took a moment to introduce the lady that produced the opening sequence - more cheers from the fans (when I got home, I discovered the lady who did it was the same person who came up with Fantasmic!). Dick begins to talk briefly about Princess and the Frog, but doesn't go into too great a detail as we had already seen 30 minutes the previous day - he had more interesting stuff up his sleeve. The next thing we know, in the Arena, it begins to snow! I kid you not - snow begins falling inside the convention centre! And we get an introduction to A Christmas Carol - we've all been given 3D glasses and we get to put them on to see the never before seen trailer for the movie. Then the Director - Robert Zemeckis - is brought onstage and introduced to the audience. I've always been a fan of his since he made Back to the Future - so it was a nerdvana moment for me :) Then Dick announces that Zemeckis will remake the Beatles Yellow Submarine movie (which is annoying because it is too weird...)

After that, Dick begins talking about Old Dogs - a new movie with Robin Williams and John Travolta. He talks about Travolta being a lucky Disney charm - Della turns to me and whispers "He's not here is he??" in her best fan-girl excited voice... And of course, Dick invites him, his wife Kelly Preston, and their daughter Ella to come on stage - the crowd (and Della) goes nuts! A massive standing ovation and thunderous applause - we learn later that it is his first public appearance since his son passed away.

Next up is Alice in Wonderland (surely if JD was coming, this would be where he turns up?) - and we get to see the trailer in 3D. Dick then brings Director Tim Burton on stage (nerdvana moment number 2 for me! And crowd is on its feet, going nuts again). Cook also announced that the studio will remake Burton's short film "Frankenweenie" in a couple of years as a full length stop motion production.

Dick Cook then starts to talk about the Muppets and their rich history - and he gets interrupted by Fozzie and Gonzo on the big screen - everyone is laughing out loud and Dick leaves the stage in digust - the lights go down, the curtains open, and a big Mark Twain paddle steamer comes on stage - Fantasmic style - with all the Muppets on board, singing! The finale being Kermit in the wheel house singing Rainbow Connection! Della is going off - the crowd is going off - more people crying and laughing. Dick Cook then announces the next Muppet movie - titled "The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made" - how funny is that!

The next guest to come onstage is Jerry Bruckheimer (nerdvana 3) more cheering, more standing ovation (didn't need our seats much in this presentation...). Jerry talked about his relationship with Disney and their next big film franchise - The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time - coming next year.

Following Bruckheimer - Nicholas Cage comes on stage (so that rumour was true!) He talks about his new Disney film - The Sorcerer's Apprentice - which comes next year as well. He also says he'd love to do another National Treasure film. We also got to see some of the movie - awesome!

We then went on to see some footage of the new DisneyNature films coming in the next few years, before Dick introduced a new Disney movie banner called Disney Double Dare You - which is being co-produced with Guillermo del Toro. del Toro is currently making The Hobbit in New Zealand so he wasn't at the Expo but gave a video address about the 'scary yet fun' new film partnership.

Next - Dick talked about the upcoming Miley Cyrus film "The Last Song" - before bringing Miley onstage. She then sang "The Climb" live on stage (I like that song!)

We then went on to see some test footage from the Tron: Legacy film, before Dick began talking about the "John Carter of Mars" series being made by Andrew Stanton from Pixar.

Finally, Dick mentions the Johnny Depp will star as Tonto in new The Lone Ranger movie. Wow - what an awesome presentation. Towards the end there, people began filing out of the Arena - eager to get to the next sessions - but we remained seated - and for good reason.

Dick is looking a little bemused as people head to the door, and he remarks that he seems to have forgotten something...the lights dim again and the orchestra strikes up the familiar Pirates of the Caribbean theme - and the audience is on its feet - screaming!! On the big screen, the words "Pirates of the Caribbean" appear, followed by the tag line "On Stranger Tides". On the stage, a sailboat has appeared with a spotlight behind it - on the sail is the unmistakable silhouette of Captain Jack Sparrow - more screaming - more stomping of feet. The sailboat moves forward onto the stage and slowly turns around - and there is Johnny Depp, in full Captain Jack mode, smiling at all of us! Captain Jack asks if we've seen a talking frog! And Dick mentions something about rum - but it is hard to hear anything as the crowd is still going off! Johnny swaggers off with Dick and the lights come up - the presentation is over.

All of this makes what happened the following week (Dick Cook's forced resignation) all the more puzzling - here was his moment of triumph, and also his end of days with the company. Dick was very approachable and was seen throughout the Expo, walking the floor and talking to fans - we never saw that even from John Lassester. Such a shame to see him go.

Anyway - we were in collective shock - although we hurried out the hall so that Gerard could get his Blackberry and immediately post an update on our website - possibly the first website in the world to report the new Pirates title - pretty cool hey?!

We had to go and grab a bite to each - that was a pretty awe inspiring morning!

After lunch, we went our separate ways - with Della and I heading into the Parks pavilion as Della hadn't seen it yet. She managed to get up close and personal with Lucky the Dinosaur:
Image

After looking through more stands, we went over to the Collector's Forum, where I ran into Paige O'Hara (the voice of Belle from Beauty and the Beast - she was a recurring figure, we ran into her a number of occasions!). We then headed upstairs to see a presentation by animators Andreas Deja and Dave Pacheco on the evolution of Mickey Mouse - once again, we ran into Gerard and Jennifer and we all sat together. Another terrific and funny presentation (all these presentations oozed Disney-style!) and it was great to see a master animator like Andreas so effortlessly draw Mickey.

The afternoon was almost over so we did a quick run through the Dream Store, before the main floor closed at 5pm. After that - we headed upstairs to visit The Treasures of the Disney Archives exhibit on the second floor - an amazing presentation of movies props and costumes from the history of Disney, including the original Sleeping Beauty jewelled book seen in the opening of the animated film.

Della and I decided we had had enough excitement for the day, and rather than go and watch one of the evening's movie presentations, we decided to head up to Disneyland for dinner. We ate at the Plaza Inn (I had the home-style fried chicken) before we returned to the hotel for a relatively early night. While we were at the Plaza Inn - there was a girl on the table beside us, talking very excitedly into her mobile phone - conversation went something like this: "It was Jack Sparrow! No, not a look alike - it was Johnny Depp! - and the Muppets, yes all of them, Kermit sang, I cried..." Della and I stood there laughing as we knew no one would believe our story either - at least not until word spread out by the internet - it was an unbelievable day...

Day 2 was the Expo highlight.
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015

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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby mushu mama » Tue Oct 20, 2009 10:38 pm

Wow.... :shock:




(thats it.... just wow.... I'm speechless - oh, and green with envy)

Lisa. */
1999- Tokyo DL, 2008- DLR/Cal Adventure, 2012-DLR/Cal Adventure, 2013-Tokyo DLand/Sea, 2014-DLR/Cal Adventure, 2015- Paris DL, 2016 - WDW/Disneycruise , upcoming - May 2018 - HongKong DL

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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Wed Oct 21, 2009 7:22 am

Wow.... :shock:
That's it - if I could bottle that day, I'd live it over an over!

I just changed the last paragraph slightly - I'd forgotten that was the day we went to Disneyland for dinner - not Denny's (they all started rolling into one!)
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015

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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby ajp » Wed Oct 21, 2009 7:36 am

Sounds like one of those days Keith, where at the end, you look up and say "It's OK, you can take me now, I'm happy" (figuratively speaking of course!).

I've read about that presentation a few times Keith, but what you have done is captured the emotion and the excitement better than anything else I've read. And I think every day, there are lots of people who obviously saw that presentation or at least appreciate the work coming from the entire Disney Studios business that are shaking their head at the demise of Dick Cook.
2023 Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Lines - Disney Wish. Going to be awesome to be back!

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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby churros » Wed Oct 21, 2009 7:38 pm

There isn't an appropriate emoticon to use!

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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Fri Oct 23, 2009 8:50 pm

Day 14 - D23 Expo
Beep - Beep - Beep - goes the alarm clock. I open my eyes and think "Wow, what a great dream that was...hang on a second, that wasn't a dream...it was all true!"

It is day 3 of the Expo, Saturday morning, and the crowds are expected to be greater today. There's talk of a sell out of the 20,000 tickets, based on word (internet?) of mouth about the previous day's star-studded event. Knowing the deal (being hardened D23 Expo attendees by now!) we headed out early to the convention centre. Once again, I got in line to get our allocation of pins, and Della headed off to check out some stores at the Collector's Forum as well as see what the crowd was looking like for the first Arena session of the day - Jay Rasulo's Parks and Resorts update.

Having got the pins, I catch up with Della and we do a walk around of the floor again - catching up with a few friends along the way from the NFFC, as well as visiting Miceage, LaughingPlace, MousePlanet (I had a long chat with David Koenig - author of the Mouse Tales books).

Gerard sends me an SMS to say he is in the line for the Parks presentation, so Della and I head over there and see both Gerard, and Wayne and Jennifer a fair way in front of us. The line is pretty big and people are sitting down awaiting for it to move. Today, they tell us they are not confiscating the electronic equipment - so that was pretty cool. We begin to shuffle forward and soon enough, we are going through the doors and into the Arena where we caught up with Gerard again.

The session is due to start at 11am, but it was running late, despite not having to declare our cameras. But eventually, Jay Rasulo comes out on stage. Once again, we get a great opening video montage (no live orchestra this time though :) ) but it was still excellent. Then Jay comes out and starts with a pretty big announcement - he says that he is "aware of rumours going around the internet about a big Fantasyland expansion in WDW and I don't know how they get started, but these rumours are absolutely...true!" Crowd goes wild...

We see lots of the concept art of the expansion and are walked through the various new Princess-themed areas - it looks pretty cool (if you are into Princesses that is).

Jay also talks about Hong Kong, the cruise line, Hawaii resort, Adventures by Disney, the DCA expansion - with an Imagineering animatic of the Radiator Springs Racers attraction (that was cool). But when he gets to Disneyland he says there is some bad news - that in October 2010, Star Tours will be closing :( Then, Imperial Storm Troopers take over the stage and Darth Vader comes on screen and Jay clarifies that they are making Star Tours II and it will open in 2014. Darth Vader said that wasn't good enough and that it had to be completed by 2011 - a timeline to which Jay Rasulo agrees! I turn to Della and said "we'd better get on over to Disneyland and ride it again before it's gone!" Next, we are told to put on our 3D glasses to see a sneak peak of the new attraction - a scene from the pod-race in The Phantom Menace. We are then told that we'll get an exclusive Star Tours II launch day poster when we leave the arena!

The presentation finished at about 11:45 and we shuffled out and got our posters - all of us Aussies got the Yoda poster, although there were Darth and C3P0 posters too. They are each individually numbered, so that was pretty cool.

For the rest of the day, Della and I decided we wouldn't do any more presentations - not because they weren't great - but because we hadn't actually covered the whole Expo floor yet (believe it or not!). We decided we do a complete systematic review of everything at the Expo! One of the highlight stands I haven't mentioned yet was the Disney Technology area - which included an ABC-TV outside broadcast van, all their TV camera equipment etc that you could check out. Plus they were also demonstrating 3D HDTV - which is awesome. 3D HDTVs go on sale in the US next year and ESPN will begin 3D sports broadcasts and Disney will release 3D Blurays next year. They had a 3D camera set up at the stand pointing at us, and it looked really funny seeing us in 3D on the big TV set. The stand also had Disney video games, the new realistic Buzz Lightyear figurine, and lots of other nifty gadgets! We also got a photo with one of the bug-floats from the Electrical Parade.

Every now and then, we'd see people walking around the Expo with these awesome Tiana bags and Snow White bags - at first we thought they bought them somewhere, but the Jennifer found out they were giving them away at the Disney Store stand. So for the last three days, Della had been stalking that stand in the hope of getting one - so much so, that the lady who ran the store would wave to Della every time she went by! Apparently they only gave out a handful at a time at set times of the day (different time each day). Della had tried making friends with the woman, giving her the "we've travelled all the way from Australia" sob story...but she would never budge. It was a bit like the Year of a Million Dreams promotion - you always saw people with the free stuff, but never got any! Anyhow, we made another pass - and once again, no luck - but we did win some Hotwheels Cars toys that were pretty cool - I got Doc Hudson and Della got Lightning McQueen.

As we toured the stands, we run into a few other famous people - Marty Sklar was walking around, as was Kagami-san (head of the Oriental Land Company who we'd met last year), Margaret Kelly (Tinker Bell), Paige O'Hara (Belle), and Eddie Carroll (the current Jiminy Cricket).

It was getting later in the day and we decided we had better go upstairs to the D23 Auction items viewing room. All the items were on display up there, and there were some great collectibles. When we saw them in the catalogue before we left Australia, it was hard to imagine what they looked like - but up close, some of these things were enormous - especially the artwork! While we were upstairs, we took some time out to look over the balcony...only to see hoards of people walking out of the Expo floor carrying Tiana and Snow White bags...nuts, we'd missed them again! :)

We then went onto the roof of the convention centre to get a bite to eat, and while we were there, we ran into Wayne, so the three of us sat together to compare notes from the last three days, before Wayne had to head to the Arena for the Expo. We followed shortly after and found seats in the spectator section. While waiting for it to begin, Maynard came in and sat behind us, so we had a chat about the Expo. Then - a guy by the name of David Garibaldi came on stage - he is best described as a rock and roll painter! He put up a large blank canvas, got the music turned up and pumping, and began to paint right in front of us. He was basically throwing paint at the large canvas and splashing it around and we are thinking "what is this?" But in twenty minutes, he'd painted three large paintings - a Sorcerer Mickey (upside down no less!); Walt Disney; and traditional Mickey! That was cool to watch - these were then becoming the "secret D23 lots" at the auction.

The Auction was great fun, Imagineer Alice Davis was there; five of the original Mouseketeers came out parading the couture Mickey ears; things were being sold for ridiculous prices; and Gerard managed to win the vintage Fantasia programs (way to go Gerard - don't forget to bring them to the meeting!). Della was yearning for an early night (these Expos can take a lot out of you) so she left early, but I stayed behind to see if Gerard could win the Hat Box Ghost figure (it was enormous!!). He didn't win it :(

So that's Day 3, I headed home to find Della checking out all her loot and drinking a hot chocolate she'd picked up at the cafe at the Tropicana hotel. It is now late Saturday night and it was time for sleep - the final day of the Expo is tomorrow - and that means it is John Lasseter's turn to take the stage. Could he out-do Mr Cook? Could we finally get our hands on those Tiana and Snow White bags? Let's wait and see :D
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015

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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby churros » Sat Oct 24, 2009 1:30 pm

Noooo I can't wait!

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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby mushu mama » Sun Oct 25, 2009 10:34 am

what a tease! :P

My money is on 'yes, they got one of those princess bags' :wink:

Can't wait to hear how it came about though -/

Lisa. */
1999- Tokyo DL, 2008- DLR/Cal Adventure, 2012-DLR/Cal Adventure, 2013-Tokyo DLand/Sea, 2014-DLR/Cal Adventure, 2015- Paris DL, 2016 - WDW/Disneycruise , upcoming - May 2018 - HongKong DL

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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Sun Oct 25, 2009 10:58 am

Day 15 - D23 Expo
Day four of the Expo and we are off once again to the convention centre. I line up for the pins at the Dream Store which is surprising quiet this morning, the queue is only half the size it's been on previous days. That's good, because I didn't want to get stuck there and miss out on seeing John Lassester's WDAS speech.

Our plan for the day was to see the JL speech, followed by the Muppet's presentation. We were originally going to see the Toy Story I & II 3D world premiere in the evening, but we weren't looking forward to sitting for four hours on the Arena seats!

We headed over to the queue line early for the Lassester presentation as it was going to be packed and caught up with Wayne who was already there. I fired off a quick SMS to Gerard to let him where we were standing so that he could join us. He arrived around the same time as Jennifer, so we were all together - with about an hour to kill before they opened the arena doors. Once again, they were taking our electronics from us. Once again, they were giving us 3D glasses. Now I should point out at this stage that we had been getting 3D glasses a lots of sessions and we were meant to hand them back into bins at the end - but so often at the end of a session, the crowd heading out of the Arena was so large that we never even saw the 3D collection bins. When we got home, we found 5 pairs of these glasses in our luggage!

At the appointed time, we shuffled into the arena, however I got separated from the others for a random search and pat down...and the others didn't even notice I got pulled out and had kept walking. Anyway, they security went through all my backpack, pockets etc and didn't find anything - and I went charging after the others who were looking very confused. "Where were you..." etc - anyway, we took our seats in the Arena and waited for JL to appear.

And to be honest - I can't actually remember much of this presentation (Gerard - can you help!). I remember we saw some Toy Story 3 work, trailers for Toy Story I & II, talk of the new Winnie the Pooh movie, a trailer for the upcoming Tinker Bell DVD release and the new Tinker Bell movies that are coming after that. Lots of details about Cars II which I think was my favourite part of the presentation - for those of you who don't know, Mater gets caught up in a whole James Bond spy case, it sounds hilarious! There was a presentation on Rapunzel - but no movie footage, and more talk about Princess and the Frog. We were also shown a scene from Prep and Landing - ABC-TV's Christmas special which is sure to be a great laugh - it is about two elf's who go into each person's house on Christmas eve to prepare for Santa's arrival - they take down the TV aerials so the reindeer don't get hurt, calm savage dogs so they don't bite Santa etc - it looked really funny (there where night vision goggles and they are the crack team - like military dudes - very funny!)

Anyway - it was a very good presentation, but still seemed a little under-done compared to what others had given us. Sure we got John Lasseter who is a reasonable public speaker - but that was it. No special announcements, no major sneak peeks, and the only "special" things we saw for being there were two new Cars-Toons. Gerard even left the Arena early so he could get to the Muppets presentation. Della and I wanted to see that too - but we stayed to the end of JL's presentation as we didn't want to miss any special stuff (like the Johnny Depp arrival at the end of Dick Cook's presentation). When it was over - I told Della to race up to the Muppets while I stayed to collect the camera and phones. Once again, it took a while to get them, and when I went upstairs, I was turned away from the Muppets. Gerard had made it in, but I found that Della and Jennifer had also failed to get it - along with many more people...seems like the Muppets are getting popular again! To Disney's credit, they took everyone's name, address and email who didn't make it into the session and said they'd send a gift (although a month later - we've never heard from them, although we didn't really expect it.)

So we stopped and ate our lunch upstairs, and while looking over the balcony, we once again saw people with lots of those Tiana and Snow White bags...grrr...

Upstairs, we also discovered a room we hadn't even been in yet - it was the Disney Bluray/DVD presentation room. They had all the upcoming releases on display, as well as a boxed set of the entire Walt Disney Treasures collection - exclusive to D23 Members - all 54 DVDs which looked pretty cool (but $499USD). We also got talking to a guy up there who gave us a handful of pins - Lightning McQueen and Nemo - so that was cool.

We headed back downstairs to do some last minute shopping at the Collector's Forum - Della got a nice Alice in Wonderland throw rug, plus other stuff. We did our final walk around of the Expo, catching up with as many of our US friends as we could before we left. As we were heading towards the front doors, we did one final pass by the Disneystore and noticed Jennifer standing there too. We told her we were leaving and that we'd meet with all the Aussies the next day in the Disneyland Hub at midday for a castle photo. As we were talking, from behind the Disneystore stand, a lady came out with the Snow White bags and announced that these were the last few remaining! I've never seen Della move so fast - she charged forward with a squeal of delight - and as that was happening, another lady came out with the Tiana bags! So, despite fearing for my life amongst a hoard of ravenous women all trying to grab the 30 or so bags remaining, I stepped into the melee and managed to get one. I escaped (barely) and found Della clutching the Snow White bag - when she saw the Tiana bag in my hand, she screamed! Four days of stalking had finally paid off...

Then immediately opposite the Disney Store stand, they had a Princess storytelling area, and Princess Belle came out! So Della, Jennifer (who also got a bag after four days of stalking!), and I watched the whole story telling sequence, then got our photo's taken with Belle. After that - it was time for us to leave the Expo. We took a few more photos as we walked out the exit, then headed back to the hotel.

The Expo was brilliant - way better than I had imagined - and was aimed at the Disney fan. I don't have many complaints at all. The Dream Store could have been a bit better, the food options were pretty basic, and sometime the Arena was empty all day when it could have been used for a few more popular sessions (I'm guessing that Disney didn't know which sessions would be most popular). I'm sure this will all be rectified in future events. I highly recommend this event - and I'd go again in a flash!

So this day is almost over - after dropping off our goods at the hotel, we went over the road to Disneyland to get some food for dinner, before getting an excellent spot right in front of the castle for the fireworks. We then watched the Pixie Hollow water and light show, before shuffling out the park and heading back to the hotel for the evening.
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015


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